Size Small on the left and size Medium on the right. The bag has an envelope bottom, which means you don’t box the corners. It creates a nice design feature and is a fun and easy way to finish a bag.

I have been wanting to teach a tote bag class, but there weren’t any patterns that had exactly what I wanted to teach. No big deal I thought, I’ll just whip up a tutorial!

But then I thought, well, if I am making this for a class, let me write it up like how I would teach it – with extra pictures, and definitions, and call-out boxes explaining things like topstitching or basting for people who are new to bagmaking.

And then I thought (help!) let me make it in three sizes…and make a version without lining so people can make it really fast and lightweight if that’s what they want. I am not always the biggest fan of tons of interfacing on a bag. It makes them heavy and bulky. Now, sometimes you want a bag with a lot of structure. But sometimes you want a bag you can stuff into a bag of other bags to bring to the farmers market, am I right? So, with this bag, it walks you through both options.

So you can see it grew from a little tutorial to a pretty solid pattern with many tips on making it as useful as possible for you.

I even include my favorite style of internal pockets – perfect for dropping in your cellphone and a granola bar!

On the whole, I am really proud of this pattern. It was a really fun process and I learned a lot. I am super grateful to the people who tested it and edited it for me. It was a learning curve figuring out how to put things in proper pattern grammar and am so lucky to have folks to help me!

And in making it, I now have a list of 3 more bag patterns I am already starting to draft out.

I originally thought I would post my pattern for free. But. Ya’ll. Seriously. Why do people offer free patterns? It took me FORever and I spent a LOT of money on fabric for my sample bags. EVERYONE is getting a Library Tote for Christmas at this point. And I am never whining about an overpriced pattern again!

One of my testing versions, I used some fabric I had from where I reupholstered my footstool after my cat shredded it. So, I have a bag that matches my living room furniture!

The Size medium bag can hold 3 rolls of paper towels. I thought that would do a good job of showing the size of the bag. But on reflection, I do need to do a photo shoot with the bags with real people holding them for a sense of scale don’t I? It is on the goal for this week.

I have posted it at a modest $4.95 Honestly, because Craftsy has a $5 and under search option, so I figured I would get more people finding my bag that way. Welcome, fellow cheapskates! I totally use this search option when looking for patterns, I respect a bargain hunter.